1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to a covering for a bed or mattress, and more particularly to a duvet-type cover for a mattress.
2. Background Art
Guests in hotels, inns, and beds and breakfasts enjoy luxurious accommodations. For example, guests may choose a particular hotel because it offers a more luxurious bathroom or higher quality furniture. Similarly, guests may prefer to stay in facilities offering higher quality linens or better mattresses. Generally speaking, hotel guests are demanding amenities that are less institutional and more like the comforts of home.
Along these lines, a guest may prefer to snuggle beneath a duvet filled with a plush goose down comforter over simply lying beneath a polyester bedspread. However, the use of comforters and duvets—instead of bedspreads—presents problems in a hotel environment. One such problem involves cleaning. It is far more time consuming to remove a comforter from a duvet, and then launder each, that it is to simply change a bedspread.
Another problem involves wear. Duvet covers in hotels receive extraordinary amounts of wear. One source of wear comes from hotel guests. For example, it is almost instinctive to some guests, at the moment of entering the room, to throw a suitcase or travel bag atop the bed covering. These bags and suitcases are often rough from being carried and generally cause mechanical wear to the covering. Additionally, bags and suitcases tend to be dirty and often stain or discolor the covering. Another source of wear comes from hotel staff. Frequently the covering must be ironed before it can be put back on a bed. Extensive washing, folding, ironing, and handling stresses the material of the covering.
There is thus a need for an improved bedding cover that is quicker and simpler to change, and that is easier to care for, yet that is aesthetically pleasing and as comfortable as traditional duvets and comforters.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.